Urban arterials by their nature carry heavy traffic volumes and generate large numbers of motor vehicle crashes. The present study involved review of police crash reports to identify precrash events and driver actions for a sample of crashes on urban with excessive numbers of crashes of a particular type. Police-reported crash data were obtained for three urban arterials in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. A total of 2013 crash reports were analyzed. Seven crash types accounted for nearly 90% of these reports. On each arterial studied, several locations with excessive numbers of crashes of a particular type were identified, and corresponding engineering countermeasures were recommended. Differences between the approach employed in this study and traditional blackspot analyses are discussed. (Author/publisher).
Abstract